Bill Lee: “the National Flood Insurance Program is in trouble, and everyone in this building knows it. Everyone in Washington knows…”

“the National Flood Insurance Program is in trouble, and everyone in this building knows it. Everyone in Washington knows it. It is fiscally unsustainable because it is by its nature structurally unsound. Yet here we are again, for the seventh straight time in just 6 years, considering a so-called ``straight'' reauthorization. ``Straight''--yes, that is the word that Washington uses. That is the word that Washington uses when Republicans and Democrats, after burning the midday oil for 2\1/2\ days a week for a few months, decide together that a dysfunctional program, $20 billion in debt, is, in fact, perfect. So we are planning to rubberstamp a continuation of its dysfunctional status quo. Swamp talk aside here, this is the opposite of ``straight.'' This is the definition of ``crooked'' and ``swampy.'' Here are the facts. The National Flood Insurance Program creates a government monopoly that insures some of the most expensive real estate in the entire world. We are talking about homes and homeowners that the private sector would be falling all over itself to insure if given the opportunity to do so. The incentives are there for flood insurance to be a vast, profitable industry, one that creates jobs and opportunity for thousands of Americans. But, no, in our unearned but infinite confidence, Congress has assured the American people: We got this. We got this. We, as in Washington. Except the problem is, we don't.…”